LIZ HARTLEY

ARTIST BIO

Liz Hartley is an artist and printmaker creating original handmade prints inspired by the landscape and nature around her studio in the countryside around Cambridge, England, and more recently the mountains and islands of Scotland, following an artist residency on the West Coast.

She works mainly in linocut, building up multiple layers of translucent ink to create her detailed images with a strong sense of perspective and light. Her practice starts with heading out into a landscape with sketchbook and camera. Back in the studio the sketch is transferred to a lino block and the lino is then carved away to create the image, before inking up and printing on the press in her studio.

Liz began her career as an artist after leaving full time work to take a year-long Advanced Certificate in Printmaking in 2022 to extend her professional practice and skills. She set up her studio in shortly afterwards. Since then her work has been exhibited nationally and locally. Her prints have been selected for juried exhibitions such as the International Original Print show at Bankside Gallery, London and the Royal Society of Marine Artists at the Mall Galleries, London, as well as regular shows in galleries around Cambridge, England.


ARTIST STATEMENT

“The utter incredibleness of life”. It’s why I was a biologist, and now I’m an artist. I want to share the beauty and wonder of nature. I’ve been in awe since I was a little girl poking around in the flowers for insects and lying in the grass, making up stories about the cloud shapes. I was always dreaming and drawing.

Coming back to art more recently I’m still drawn to landscapes, plants and trees. Drawing makes me look, and the more I look the more I see. I grew up in the English countryside on a farm. At the time I couldn’t wait to get away from the rural isolation but now I’m constantly exploring ways to capture the austere beauty of the flat, fenland landscape I grew up in. My prints often have wide-open skies, or watery reflections. Trees and their infinite variety of shapes are also an endless fascination.

I was recently artist in residence on the West Coast of Scotland and am now totally captivated by its mountains, distant islands and remnants of ancient rainforest.

I’m a printmaker, as I love its strange mixture of creativity and technical precision and the ability to play with colour. I’m constantly evolving the colours I use, and I often explore entirely new colour combinations using the same lino blocks. I’m captivated by the endless exploration that printmaking offers.